TechBlog from Sewell

When we were at CES last year we came into contact with some battery suppliers that offered really low prices for high-quality stuff. Thanks to this that we are able to offer Hearing Aide Batteries of two sizes.

The most popular being the Blue Batteries and the Brown Batteries which represent both the A675 and A312 battery standards respectivley.

While I haven’t had a chance to use them (I don’t have a hearing aide) Camelion assures us that they are long lasting and high-quality batteries despite their low price.Hey, I’m all for getting lower-priced higher-quality goods.

Opti-UPS just introduced a truly portable charger. How, would you say, can a charger be truly portable?

When it includes built-in solar panels.

This unique charger allows you charge/use many different types of electronic devices. It comes with all the accessories you would typically see in a universal ac adapter. There are plug adapters for iPods, cell phones, CD players, gameboys, and much more.

Check out the product description and feature set by visiting the Opti-UPS Solar Powered Charger page.

Just suppose that your power supplies for your laptop, scanner, printer, and pet robot have been destroyed by power supply eating grremlins. Well, here is the solution. Build yourself a new power supply that can do multiple voltages. I have included a simple diagram on how to do this below.

The other option is to stop being a cheapo and buy a premade power supply. We have a universal power supply for laptops as well as one for Mac G3 laptops that just may work for that old teddy ruxpin of yours. To find out what voltage you need, check the voltage on your device (usually on the bottom side of the unit). If you have an exact match then you are good to go. If the voltage is higher than what you need than you are out of luck. Amperes doesnt really affect the device as long as you are getting plenty, since the device will just take what it needs snyway.

If you have a PCMCIA card that requires external power, the sequence in which you plug in the different ports will make a huge difference. We sell cards that use external power. Here are the instructions to install these type of cards:

1. Plug power connections into PCMCIA card and power supply(sometimes the power supply is a USB port, sometimes it is a wall socket plug)
2. Plug the PCMCIA card into the computer

If you have a USB Hard Drive that takes all of its power from your USB ports, then you might have to use it by itself, rather than having a horde of USB devices plugged into the PCMCIA card.

Some of our cards that use external power are:

Firewire USB combo PCMCIA cards
USB PCMCIA cards

In recent years the clock speeds of CPUs (Central Proccessing Unit) and GPUs (Graphics Processing Unit) have been increasing by leaps and bounds! The industry seems to not be slowing in their desire to create the perfectly smooth and functional system. What once seemed like a normal wait time for an appplication to open is now like an eternity. People crave a fast system. It is just that simple. Where would this world be without multitasking anyway? More specifically just the last couple of years has brought about a new type of processing through Multi-Core CPUs. Two are obviously better than one right? In almost every case the anwswer to that question would be yes. However, there are a few drawbacks that Dual-Core processors bring that has been overlooked by more than a few companies.

For gaming lovers everywhere we have that GIANT in Redmond, Washington to thank for the Xbox 360. What an awesome piece of hardware, as long as it is functioning correctly that is. What’s this you say…you haven’t heard of the issues that our plaguing the Xbox 360. Put it this way the inside of the machine is burning like a volcano. For some reason it seems that cooling was not high on the priority list of the system designers. Or maybe it was…but the system designers didn’t get the last say. In all of my speculating when the marketers were introduced to the system they may have thought it sounded like a vacuum cleaner. Yes boys and girls it takes fans running at high speeds to keep a system stable, especially if you live in a house where your wife likes to turn up the thermostat in the winter.

To make this point perfectly clear take a jaunt on over to one of my favorite gaming sites for their take on this issue. www.FIRINGSQUAD.com

“In an effort to keep the system quiet, Microsoft is overly aggressive with running the fans slowly. The best approach for Xbox 360 stability is placing a small exhaust fan to augment the existing solution. An enterprising entrepreneur could probably make a small fortune selling an added exhaust fan for the Xbox 360 powered by the rear USB port. The Xbox 360 just needs a little extra boost – that’s all.”

In my opinion by far one of the greatest drawbacks to PC processing (and hinderances to my sweet OVERCLOCKING SKILLS) is this thing I learned about in physical science called…HEAT!!! My mother always warned me not to touch a hot oven when I was younger, but believe me you would not want to touch a processor with a couple of volts charging it either.

Today’s processors are scorching hot and for the fastest processors you will need special cooling in order to control the fire your Power Supply is creating.

I will share a few of my suggestions on how to do this.
1. A case built for your cooling needs.
2. Adequate room temperature. (Somewhere between 65-75 Farenheit).
3. Good use of thermal paste.
4. Specifically desiged CPU heat sink and fan or liquid cooling :).

Particularly I have found that an excellent cooling solution is the Zalman CNPS9500 LED! I modified my old Alienware with this CPU cooler and now I have built my new gaming rig with the same awesome product!!!

You can easily get a sustained 40 degrees celcius as long as you use some Artic Silver 5 and have good fans in your case.

Notice the 3 heatpipes coming up from the heat sink in a figure-8 config making a total of 6 heatpipes. What a beautiful piece of copper!

A great review of the product can be found here at techPowerUp.

Something extremely exciting has taken place at Sewell Direct just recently.
We have just added Nvidia Video Cards on the website!!

The following graphics cards are ready to ship:

-XFX GeForce 7800 GT-
SW-4270
-XFX GeForce 6600 LE-
SW-4271

From what I hear this is just the beginning!! So stay tuned.

Expect a new article from me soon about my new gaming rig!

Well I better get back to gaming…

–Tikiman (Scott Sibley)

Anti-Static Wrist straps, sometimes called electrostatic discharge wrist straps, are used to remove any static electricity from your body while you are working on a computer. Static electricty can damage computer parts quite easily. If you installing anything inside your desktop computer, then your computer is at risk to electrostatic discharge. Static electricity can be a lot of fun when shocking a loved one. However, it is not so much fun when it fries something in your computer. Although it doesnt occur too often, it is nearly unpredictable. This strap is not made just for techies. It is designed for everyones use. If you are installing something in your computer, you should definetly consider getting one of these straps.